From Kenneth Udeh from Abuja


Senators from Niger State on Tuesday expressed their anger with what they described as neglect by the Federal Government over the deplorable state of federal roads in the state.


The senators in a statement credited to Senator Musa during an emotional laden debate over a motion moved by the Deputy Whip, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, accused Nigeria’s Minister of Federal Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, of being biased in his attitude towards road construction and repairs in Niger State.


The senators lamented that, despite the award of huge sums contracts for the construction of some of the federal roads in the state, the funds released for the construction of the roads remained insufficient.


Sabi’s motion is occasioned by the recent action by tanker drivers in Niger State who blocked all the major roads leading out of the town and prevented motorists from going out and coming of the town.


According to the tanker drivers, the protest was a result of the deplorable state of roads in Niger State, especially the Bida-Lapai-Lambata Road.


On Tuesday’s plenary, citing orders 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules and Proceedings, the Deputy Senate Whip, Abdullahi Sabi, in a motion co-sponsored by eight other senators, uttered with disbelief and shock the very ugly scene playing out in Niger State since February 24 to September 2021 in which heavy trucks and tanker drivers blocked all entry and exit roads to protest the horrible state of federal roads passing through the state.


At the conclusion of Senator Sabi’s submission to the members of the Senate, Senator Sani Musa while making his contribution lamented the terrible state of roads in Niger State, accused Fashola of being one-sided in his approach towards the construction and repairs of roads in Niger State.


He cited the allocation of the sum of 56 billion for the construction of Abuja to Markudu road by the ministry of works but allocated a budgetary sum of only 4.6 billion for the construction of the road in question despite the huge economic importance of the road to the Northern region.


He said: “Agriculture activities are within the hinterland, especially Niger State where we have the largest landmass in this country. Anytime we talk about Infrastructure one of the lousy excuses we have is that we have four Presidents that come from that state but these are the few Presidents that have done well to other states. So don’t we deserve to have a good thing in our state?


“Our roads are in shambles and they are not motorable. So if the trailers decide to block Niger State roads, it’s not just to Niger State – it’s to the entire Northern Nigeria. Because if you look at the axis from Ilorin to Jeba, Mokwa, Tegina, Birin Gwari up to Kaduna to Kano and other parts of Northern Nigeria cities the roads on that side is the main road that contributes a lot and that road was constructed 30 or 40 years ago since around 1973 and nothing more.


“But we can see that from Abuja to Markudi almost 56Billion naira was allocated for that road and when you compare it to the road that we just mentioned, only 4.6billion. So where’s the equity and what are the economic gains that come from this axis compared to the one coming from the Niger State axis? So I call on the Federal Government, especially the minister of works, to realise that Nigeria is a large country and need everyone to be taken seriously.


“The Minister of Works is one-sided. What we need in this country is equal opportunity for every sector. I don’t see the reason why other states will benefit from federal roads construction and Niger State will not have it. And I call on the Senate to do the needful. The budget is coming and we are going to raise this issue again.”


Earlier in his lead debate, while outlining the data of the road network in Niger State, Sabi noted that Niger State has the longest federal roads network of 2, 263 Km out of a total of 32,000KM of national federal roads network. While also stating that the federal roads in Niger State stretched from the Abuja -Kaduna end to the Jebba — Mokwa — Makera — Tegina — Birnin Gwari -Kaduna road to the Mokwa — New Bussa — Agwara — Kigera end which lies to the border with the Republic of Benin.


The Niger North Senator said that overall, the following are critical linkage roads within Niger State that provide logistical and vehicular movements between the North and South; especially the South West and North West economic corridors. He listed the roads as namely;ZungeruTegina road — 34KM ,Bida Zungeru road —92Km ,Minna Western Bye Pass road – 13.5KM ,Tegina — Kaduna road – 80KM ,Bokani -Tegina road — 115Km, Wawa -Kaiama road – 65KM ,Zungeru -Minna -Lambatta road – 143KM ,KontagoraIbeto -Yauri road – 830KM , Kontagora — Tegina road —100KM ,wokwa “New Bussa (Kainji Dam) Road — 100KM ,Mokwa Junction — Bida road —122KM ,Bida- Lapai—Lambatta road — 125KM ,Lambatta Junction — Madalla road — 42KM ,Zuba — Kaduna road — 60Km ,Jebba ~ Mokwa -Bokani road — 100KM , Makera — Kontagora road — 86KM ,Rofia Road – Swate – Segbana (Republic of Benin Border) road 121KM, Wawa — Rofia Road — 150KM, Kainji DamNew Bussa -Wawa Road — 32KM ,Kontagora — Rijau — Kebbi Road — 113KM, Agaie – Katcha — Baro — FCT Border road — 85KM, Ibeto — Auna — New Warrah -Kebbi road — 75KM ,Minna — Shiroro Dam road — 60KM, KontagoramatachibuKotonkoro road — 111KM ,BidaSacciNupeko Road — 52Km and Gwada — Sarki Pawa-Kaduna road — 63KM.


In his words, “because of the massive land area of Niger State at 76, 363KM/ (representing about 9 per cent of the total land area of the country), all movements from North to South substantially traverse the State. Indeed, the massive haulage of heavy industrial goods such as petroleum products, iron rods, cement, finished manufactured goods, machines and equipment, electronic materials and goods, building materials etc, in which trucks and tankers are overloaded puts great pressure on the roads and thus are seriously devastating to the state of the roads.”


Speaking further, Sabi said that cursory observation and reports indicate that many trucks and tankers are loaded with up to 90,000 tonnes of goods and all vehicles are consistently loaded well above their approved tonnage.


Sabi further raised the alarm that all the major link roads have totally failed with fatal accidents occurring on a daily basis with loss of life, goods and vehicles. Which he said resulted in what angered the trucks and tanker drivers to begin the protest as the only available alternative route to exit the state is the BidaMinna road which is currently undergoing construction.


He said: “This road itself is a failed road with many portions that cannot withstand any heavy truck movement as it is. The only road portion that is substantially motorable is the Mokwa Junction — Bida road which is itself under intense pressure by the heavy-duty haulage activities of trucks and tankers and may not last two years under the current scenario. The Kontagora-Yauri road is also motorable but hard to reach, hence the pressure on state roads.”


In support of the motion, Senator Sadiq Umar representing Kwara North also said the blockage of the roads in Niger State also affected economic activities in Kwara state, road accidents and several other problems. Umar disclosed that most of the road contracts in Niger State were merely awarded but not funded.


Speaking in the same vein Senator Bima Enagi called for special intervention funding for the deplorable roads.


The Senate in its resolution urged the Federal Government to provide N300 billion as emergency intervention funds to rehabilitate deplorable roads in Niger State as part of the infrastructure rehabilitation efforts of the government to support ease of business and economic recovery across the country.


Among other prayers the Senate accordingly urged the Federal Government to: declare a state of emergency on the critical roads in Niger State linking economic corridors in the North and South, direct the Federal Ministry of Works to carry out emergency stabilization of the failed portions of BidaLapaiLambatta road to ease the current suffering and rate of accidents and loss of goods and investments on the road and Convoke a National Legislative Roundtable on the State of Infrastructure for Economic Development which will bring all critical stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions to address the current challenges.


https://www.sunnewsonline.com/bad-federal-roads-niger-senators-accuse-minister-of-works-of-bias/

The Present administration can't rehabilitate all the federal roads in Nigeria in less than 8 years, though they can do better than this.

I pass through the ikorodu-shagamu expressway few days ago, I almost cried because of how horrible the road is.

Bad road, terrible traffic between ikorodu and ogijo.

The traffic and bad road there fit fraustrate person life.

The FG have been rehabilitating the road for more than 3 years like this, and them never even do am reach 10%

This country is hell on earth.

I honestly beleive Fashola is being partial when it comes to Roads construction.
Too bad

There are bad roads in ALL States of the Federation.
We need alternative systems of funding the constructions and maintenance of roads.


1) Let the FG hands up from the constructions and maintenance of roads and allow each States to contstructs roads within their territories.

2) More resources should be redistributed to the and generated by the States to fund and maintain their roads.

3) States that can finance the construction and maintenance of their roads can privatize these roads to the private sector.

“But we can see that from Abuja to Markudi almost 56Billion naira was allocated for that road and when you compare it to the road that we just mentioned, only 4.6billion. So where’s the equity and what are the economic gains that come from this axis compared to the one coming from the Niger State axis? So I call on the Federal Government, especially the minister of works, to realise that Nigeria is a large country and need everyone to be taken seriously

The Senator that spewed the above nonsense and those that supported him should all be flogged. The power to appropriate funds for federal projects resides in the National Assembly so what is he saying?

Were these Niger state Senators not in the National Assembly when the budget was passed? If they didn’t raise any objection when the budget was still a bill before them, why are they raising issues now that the budget is a law and being implemented?

Fashola is not the problem here but the docile, incompetent and corrupt senators who abdicated their duties to represent their people only to start blaming others when the deed is done.

Your party is borrowing to construct railway to Niger Republic

PDP will stop that project at Katsina and nothing more

Support PDP for Unity and sane decisions

To hell with the hell